Dec. 28, 1883.] 



. KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



389 



encounter between a pair of heavenly bodies, selected at 

 random, is triflins;, almost beyond the power of computa- 

 tion, and the intervals of time between such catastrophes, 

 in that part of the heavens subject to human observation, 

 must be, on the average, enormous ; but yet, in iufinite 

 time and unbounded space — somewhere or other now, some- 

 time or other here — such things are happening, or will come 

 to pass. '"'•'''^-', 



To he continued. 



RECREATION BY WONDER.* 



NEXT to uncertainties as parts of recreation, I named 

 wonders, meaning to include the objects of all forms 

 and degrees of wonder, from quiet aduiiration to utter 

 astonishment or awe. Of course, the issue of a clumce or 

 of a game of skill may excite wonder, and its use for 

 recreation may be thus enhanced ; but we may think 

 of the recreation due to wonders as something dis- 

 tinct. Their fitness for recreation is as evident as 

 that of uncertainties, and similar. Whatever most men's 

 daily work may be, or wherever they may pursue it, they 

 become so accustomed to it, so familiar with all around 

 them, that they may cease to wonder at anything within 

 their range. They may have their work in the midst of 

 glorious scenery, among mountains, or by the sea, or in 

 their own rooms among marvellous beauties of art, but 

 they observe little or nothing of all this ; or they may be 

 working at any of the applications of the wonderful dis- 

 coveries of recent times, but they have long ago ceased to 

 be astonished at them. Some of us may, indeed, upon 

 reflection or in calm thinking, be moved by the wonders 

 among which we have been living : they are very happy 

 times when we can so meditate ; but usually and habi- 

 tually we are seldom conscious of any stirring wonders in 

 our customary work. The finding and observing of them 

 elsewhere is, tlierefore, a real recreation, and a chief part 

 of a very large number of the mental refreshments which 

 we most earnestly seek and most thoroughly enjoy. And 

 happily it is so ; for the contemplation of wonders may 

 give occupation, and thereby strength, to one of the noblest 

 parts of our minds — the part which not only, as Aristotle 

 pointed out, first leads to studious research, but that which 

 is exercised in the highest admiration and reverence, and 

 which acts, together with the imagination in the forming 

 oi the highest ideals towards which we can ever strive. 



It is easy to find instances in which the gieatest charm 

 of recreation is in the wonder to which they move us. I 

 watched one in myself some weeks ago when I went over 

 the electric-lii^hthouse on the Lizard Point, enjoying aud 

 feeling refreshed by all the wonders that I saw there : the 

 wonders of the burners that would give the light of many 

 thousand candles ; and of the multiplied reflectors and 

 lenses by which, of all this light, none might be wa.sted, but 

 all sent right out to shine for miles over the sea ; the 

 admirable cleverness and precaution by which, if the electric 

 light were, by any accident, hindered, a huge paraffin lamp, 

 with its concentric wicks, would instantly take its ])lace ; 

 and then the wonders of the fog-horn, with its great reser- 

 voir of air so condensed by steam-pressure that, being let go, 

 it would lilow a blast upon the horn which should be heard 

 out at sea miles beyond the distance at which, in the dense 

 fog, the light could be scon. 



I wondered at all this and was refreshed ; and I wonder 

 still as often as I think of it, and thus constantly renew 



• From an article by Sir James Paget in the Nineteenth Century. 



my recreation. And I think, too, of the contrast between 

 myself and the keeper of the lighthouse who showed it to 

 me. He was an admirably intelligent workman, complete 

 in his knowledge of the machinery ; as complete in his 

 knowledge as I was in my ignorance ; proud, too, of the 

 work in which he was engaged, and happy, I think, in its 

 utility. But to him it was no wonder ; he showed it with 

 all ttie quietude of routine, and spoke rather wearily of the 

 hours spent in watching it. To him there was no recreation 

 in it all ; it was the object of his daily work. 



The same charm of wonder and the same kind of con- 

 trast may be found in a thousand other instances. We 

 enjoy the surprises of conjuring tricks, which to the con- 

 juror himself, I suppose, give no stirring pleasure ; and of 

 fireworks, and the stories and actings of perilous adven- 

 tures. Jlore worthily, we may enjoy and be refreshed by 

 the marvels of skill in art, in music, or in singing. When 

 we listen to a long-sustained high note— such as Albani 

 can sing or Joachim can play — we are refreshed not only 

 by the beauty of the sound, but by the wonder that 

 it can be produced ; and it is this which most refreshes 

 us when, long afterwards, we can recall the sound. It is 

 after the same manner that we are refreshed by glorious 

 scenery, the grandeur of mountains, of cataracts, of floods 

 of light at sunset : they move us to wonder, and we enjoy 

 them and they refresh our minds, though those who live 

 among them may be unmoved. And so it is when we leave 

 home and find recreation in the strange sights and customs 

 of other cities ; and foreigners come here and are as happy 

 in their wonder at the things which we are tired of looking 

 at. What would not one give to be able to come to 

 London as a stranger and be surprised at the sights that, 

 unless in careful thinking, we now care nothing for 1 



A Oat upon a Roman Tile. — At Dowgate-hill the 

 roadway known to the Romans was 14 ft. or 15 ft. beneath 

 the present pavement. To that extent Roman London is 

 beneath us, just as old Rome underlies the modern City, 

 ancient Jerusalem the modern Holy Places, and the Troy 

 of Homer the existing Hizarlik. One very striking rem- 

 nant of the conquerors was found in this classic spot. 

 It was a Roman tile, 13 in. square and IMn. thick, and 

 had formed, according to the usual practice of those expert 

 and substantial builders, part of a layer of a rubble wall. 

 But that which made it strikingly interesting was the 

 impression of a oat's foot distinctly marked in one corner. 

 It was a fossil imprint of the most perfect character. Pussi/ 

 had left the ulamp of her paw on the soft day. The 

 British or Roman brick-maker, without heeding it, had 

 baked his brick carefully and well, and there, after fifteen 

 centuries, was the impression as distinct as if it had 

 been struck on a coin but yesterday. It was a type of 

 what the geologist is familiar with. Mr. Charlcsworth 

 found the impress of a l)utterfly in strata that had been 

 buried more than as many thousands of years ; Lyell has 

 recorded footprints of birds and reptiles in rocks that must 

 have been many ages old, ripple marks on the sandstones 

 of seas in vastly remote epochs ; while in the Laurentian 

 rocks of Canada Dr. Dawson has traced marks of lowly 

 forms of life that must have been embedded or imprinted 

 millions of years ago. So might it have been with pussy's 

 footprint. She and her mistress— perchance a Roman lady 

 of high degree, possibly with a residence hard by in 

 Watling-street— and everything that pertained to the 

 Roman occupation might have been things millions of 

 years gone by, and yet that footprint has remained as fresh 

 as it is to-day.— iJdi/y Telegraph. 



